Home
by Quipu
Summary: Two years after the group arrived in Alexandria, Aaron comes back from a recruitment run with someone nobody expected to see again. Bethyl fluff.
1. Chapter 1

Daryl was working on his bike when he heard the faint clattering of the gates rolling open in the distance. Normally he would have been part of the group returning from the recruitment run, or at the very least manning the gate to see in the new arrivals. But the last time he had gone out hunting, the ground had given way beneath him slightly and he had landed awkwardly on his ankle. A few years ago he might have been able to shake the injury off but, as Carl loved to remind him, he wasn't a young man anymore. Rick had insisted that he sit out all of his jobs until he was fully healed, asking Rosita to take his place on the next trip. So while Aaron and Rosita were outside of the oppressive walls, and Carl of all people was guarding the gate, Daryl was stuck hobbling around Aaron and Eric's garage, tinkering with his bike like an old man.

He ignored the sound, retreating further into the garage. Carol would accuse him of sulking later, but he wasn't about to go out and watch a kid do his job for him. And as much as he hated to admit it, walking all the way down to the gate would hurt his ankle. It was already throbbing from being up and working on the bike all morning.

Daryl had just settled down into the faded green camp chair for a break when a shadow fell over him. He turned to see Rick, silhouetted in the bright sunlight streaming through the open garage door. "You're goin' to want to see this," he said, gesturing for Daryl to follow him. Daryl normally hated when people chose to be cryptic instead of just coming out and saying what was happening. But it sounded vaguely important, and he was so sick of being made to sit around and 'rest' that he stood up, wiped the oil from his hands, and followed him without question.

Rick headed in the direction of the gates. The Sheriff seemed to be almost running towards his destination, and Daryl fought back a wince as his ankle protested at his attempt to keep up. When they rounded the corner to see the results of the recruitment trip though, all of his pain evaporated. Maggie was kneeling on the ground, her whole body shaking as she sobbed. And her arms were wrapped around a blonde woman.

Daryl couldn't see her face, but somehow both knew it was her and knew it couldn't be her at the same time. Her hair was the exact right golden colour, pulled up away from her face with that small braid running through it. The arms wrapped around Maggie's back were pale and slim, with bracelets stacked around her wrists. She was wearing a tanktop and jeans, and grey cowboy boots. Who else could it be? But she was dead. He had seen her get shot, had held her lifeless body in his arms. Maybe then, this was a dream. It wouldn't be the first he'd had like it. He would wake up soon, and spend the next week reliving the fantasy over and over.

But then the woman looked up from where her face had been buried in Maggie's shoulder, bright blue eyes staring straight at him. And he knew that there was no way it was a dream. For the past two years, he had spent every sleepless night trying to remember her face. He was determined not to forget it, but found that as time went on, the details got fuzzier. He could remember individual features - an eye, a freckle, the way she quirked her eyebrow – but he couldn't put it together to form a whole picture of her. And he had been starting to doubt that the parts of her he could remember were actually _her_ , and not some false-memory he had created by spending so much time thinking about her.

But there was no doubting the face in front of him. Apart from anything else, she looked different. She was a little older, the last of her baby fat having given way to smooth planes across her cheeks. Her scars had faded, the shiny, puckered lines a stark contrast to the vivid red and freshly-stitched wounds of his memories. Andher eyes were somehow wiser, and less naive. Neither his imagination nor his memory could ever have created the face that was staring back at him.

But if this was real, if she was real, then it was even worse. Daryl felt his stomach drop and bile rise in his throat. If she was alive now then she had been alive then, in Atlanta. And he had left her, alive and alone, in a city full of walkers and people who were even worse. Because of him, she been through God only knew what, and had had to survive on her own for two years.

Tears had been leaking out of the corners of her eyes while she had been hugging Maggie, but when she spotted Daryl she let out a strangled cry and ran towards him. She collided with him, wrapped her arms around his waist, and sobbed into the fabric of his shirt. His arms came to rest automatically around her back, and his voice cracked when he spoke, "Beth?" She nodded and sniffled in response, burying her face further into his chest.

For two years, he had gone over their time together and beaten himself up about the things he should have done differently. At the funeral home, he had forced her to make all the first moves, relying on her to pull him out of himself and assuming she must know how he felt just because he hadn't pushed her away. But it wasn't enough, he knew that now. This was Beth Greene, and she deserved to know without doubt how amazing she was and how much she meant to him. She had put up with his silent forms of communication, but he knew she valued talking out loud. And after what he did to her, leaving her there alone and injured, he would do things the way she wanted for the rest of his life. He forced himself to speak, "I- I left you. 'M so _sorry_ Beth. Shit, s'all my fault."

"It's ok, it's ok," she murmured, cutting him off. Of course she would forgive him. He didn't deserve it, didn't deserve anything from her after what he did. But Beth Greene didn't hold grudges, and she saw the best in everyone. That was what made him fall in love with her in the first place. He squeezed her more tightly to him, and then the thought occurred to him that he should kiss her. Daryl had never been good at showing affection, and had never even considered doing something like that in public. But if someone had offered him the chance to kiss Beth one more time yesterday, he would have given anything. Now she was in his arms, and the only thing he had to give was the courage to do it in front of so many people.

He pulled back and she gave him a watery smile, the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. But before he could lower his lips to hers, she pulled away, grabbed his hand and said, "I need to introduce you to someone."

He followed her back towards the car she had arrived in. Aaron was sitting sideways in the open door of the driver's seat, a grin on his face as he watched their reunion. Beth led Daryl around to the rear door on the other side. As they approached, a man stepped out.

"This is Tim," Beth said with a smile, still gripping onto his hand. Tim looked to be in his mid-twenties, with olive skin and dark hair. He was tall and slim, but with enough lean muscle that he looked like he could take care of himself. The multitude of knives he had strapped to himself seemed to confirm that theory. He nodded at Daryl, and smiled a perfectly straight, white smile. He was good looking, as far as Daryl noticed that kind of thing, if a bit of a pretty boy. In other words, he was perfect for Beth.

Daryl let go of her hand. Of course. Why would he think he had any right to kiss her again, as if they could just pick up where they left off? Even if she could forgive him for abandoning her in Atlanta, and even if she might have been prepared to wait years for a man she would probably never see again, he had never given her any real indication of how he felt. They had been together while it was just the two of them, but she had had to make all the first moves then. She probably assumed he was just using her to pass the time.

Tim bent into the car, pulled out a little girl, and handed her to Beth. Daryl wasn't good at guessing the ages of children, but he would put her at somewhere between one and two years old. She had a head of curls, dark like Tim's, and blue grey eyes a bit like Beth's. The three of them stood together looked like the most perfect little family.

"And this," Beth said, shuffling the squirming toddler on her hip to get a better hold of her, "is Daisy."

"She your daughter?" Daryl asked, though he already knew the answer. Her colouring may have been more like Tim's, but her face was all Beth, glowing with the same sweetness as her mother.

Beth took a deep breath and smiled, "She's our daughter."

Daryl nodded at Tim, and Beth frowned. "You're a lucky man," he said gruffly, "take care of 'em." That was all he could manage. He didn't trust the strength of his voice to say any more, and his eyes were prickling embarrassingly in a way they never should in front of other people. A part of him was happy that Beth had found happiness, but it was too much to watch. Every time he had imagined seeing Beth again, having her there at all had already been a fantasy, so he had never bothered to consider the idea of her not wanting to be with him. He turned and started walking towards home, the pain in his ankle returning full force.

He knew that Beth was following after him, but he kept marching forwards, pretending he hadn't noticed. When Beth called out, "Daryl, stop!" though, he did as she asked. He couldn't deny her anything, no matter how much it might hurt him.

She caught up with him, a little out of breath from lugging the baby who was clearly starting to get a bit too big to be carried. "I said, she's _our_ daughter." Daryl looked at her blankly. "This is Daisy Dixon."


	2. Chapter 2

"This is Daisy Dixon."

It felt like he was watching static on an old TV. There was a strange white noise in his ears blocking out any other sound. And he knew that Beth's face was in front of his eyes, but somehow he wasn't really seeing her. He opened his mouth, aware that he should say something in response, but nothing came out. He didn't understand. "Tim…?" he managed eventually.

Realisation dawned on Beth's face. "You thought?" She let out a little giggle, "Daryl, Tim is gay. And Daisy was already born when I met him." Daryl must still have looked bewildered, because Beth continued shyly, "Do you remember, when we were in the funeral home?"

"Course I remember," Daryl said quickly, her uncertainty snapping him straight out of his daze. Their time in the funeral home together had been the best thing that had ever happened to him. How could she think he could forget that? Of course, because he had never told her how he felt. And still hadn't, despite having been given the chance he had been dreaming of for two years. "She's… mine?" he said, needing her to actually confirm it. Beth beamed at him and nodded.

Daryl had always known he would never have children. He would have to find a woman he could stand who would also give him the time of day for starters. Before Beth, he hadn't thought such a woman existed, and after Beth he knew no one would ever live up to her. But aside from that, there was too much of Will Dixon in him to ever risk having kids. He would never willingly subject someone to a childhood even a fraction as bad as his had been. And he knew there was a chance he could turn into his daddy one day; he could rarely stop the Dixon rage bursting out of him when he drank. And on top of all that, the dead had started walking. Having a child in the new world was downright stupid.

But now Beth was stood in front of him, telling him he was a father, and he knew that no amount of Dixon blood could ever make him hurt either of them. He would do anything to keep them safe. Only, he hadn't done that so far. If this was his baby, Beth had to have been pregnant the last time he saw her. And that meant… oh God. He stepped back, needing air but finding that no matter how deeply he inhaled it wasn't enough. "I left you… you were pregnant an' I left you alone," he sank onto his knees in front of her, not caring about their audience. Will Dixon had been a bad father. A violent drunk, he had covered both of his sons in scars and left their lives completely screwed up. But even Will Dixon hadn't abandoned his pregnant wife or newborn babies. And Will Dixon had only made them deal with a monster at home; he hadn't left them to deal with flesh-eating walkers. Daryl had only known he had a child for five minutes, and already he was a worse father than his own.

Beth joined him on the floor, shifting Daisy so she was sat across her knees, and laced her small fingers through his. "Did you know I was alive?" she asked calmly. He shook his head. "Did you know I was pregnant?" He shook his head again. "If you had known, would you have left me?"

"Never," he grunted.

"Well then it doesn't matter. You didn't know, and you can't change that. You acted based on the information you had at the time." She squeezed his hand, "And besides, it's worked out in the end. We're alive, and we're safe, and now we're back together again."

Daryl nodded, though he didn't agree with her. There she went again, forgiving all of the completely unforgivable things he had done. He didn't deserve any part of her, but he knew that if she wanted him in her life in any way he would be powerless to refuse. As much as he would never consider spending two years alone with a baby trying to survive at the end of the world 'working out', her words seemed to have eased the knot in his stomach. He was able to draw in a deep breath, finally feeling like his lungs were completely full.

"Now," Beth said with a small smile, "do you want to hold your daughter?" Daryl nodded instantly, and Beth picked Daisy up, talking to her as she passed her over, "Daisy, this is your daddy."

Daddy. Daryl felt the weight of the word settle over his shoulders as he felt the weight of the child settle into his arms. He looked into Daisy's face, and quickly decided that he was an idiot for thinking she could ever have been Tim's. They weren't Beth's bright blue eyes, they were his – paler and with more grey. She had his hair too, different in tone to the near jet black of Tim's. The sight of his eyes in the face of a mini Beth Greene made something warm grow in his chest. Without thinking, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to Beth's. She didn't respond at first, and he almost pulled away in panic, but then she wrapped her arms around him and Daisy, him and their child, and kissed him back. Daryl closed his eyes and tried to commit the moment to memory; he was fairly sure that he would never get another moment as perfect.

Carl, Enid and Tara started whistling and clapping at them, causing the rest of the crowd to laugh. Daryl flushed and broke the kiss, suddenly very aware of the number of eyes on them. He stood up and helped Beth to her feet, and then Maggie rushed forwards, shrieking, "Let me see my niece!" She bent down to Daisy, peppering kisses over her forehead, but she didn't try to take the baby out of his arms. Daryl was glad; he didn't want anyone to take her away from him. The rest of the group followed Maggie's lead, Rick clapping Daryl on the back and murmuring his congratulations, Carol drawing Beth into a bone-crushing hug, and Carl pulling Judith along to meet Daisy.

The more people crowded around them, the more Daisy seemed to be fidgeting in his arms. He glanced down at her and saw her bottom lip beginning to wobble. Daryl looked to Beth, his eyes widening. "I think this is a bit too much for Daisy," she said in answer to his silent question, loud enough for everyone to hear. The swarm of well-wishers backed off, and Daryl took her hand, leading her away from the crowd and towards his home.

"You want me to take her?" she said as they walked along the rows of white picket fences.

"Nah, I got 'er," Daryl was enjoying the feeling of Daisy burrowing her head into his shoulder. Beth gestured to the ankle he was limping on, her face questioning. "Be fine in a couple days. Jus' twisted it or somethin'."

* * *

The houses in Alexandria were strong, their thick walls making them almost soundproof. When Daryl shut the door behind the three of them it felt like he was enclosing them in their own private bubble. "I missed you," he said, conscious that he shouldn't let anything go unsaid between them and that he still hadn't told her how he felt.

Beth wrapped one arm around his back. "I missed you too."

Daisy's head kept lolling onto Daryl's shoulder as she alternated between trying to look around her new surroundings and succumbing to her tiredness. "I think this little one needs a nap," Beth said, stretching up onto her toes to brush hair out of her daughter's eyes.

Daryl nodded, and headed up towards his bedroom. Realising what he was doing, he stopped part way up the stairs. "I… um… you can stay in my room. If you want. Course you can always stay wi' someone else, or 'm sure we can get you yer own room…"

"Of course we'll stay in your room," Beth said, cutting off his rambling, "if you'll have us."

"Never want you anywhere else," Daryl said, then felt his cheeks warm at the insinuation. He carried on up the stairs, avoiding eye contact with Beth.

His room was basic. A large bed was pushed against one wall, draped with a quilt that Carol had made him. A wardrobe holding all of his clothes, shoes and weapons stood next to the door to the bathroom. He had an emergency pack hanging from the back of the door, ready in case he needed to run. One bedside table held a small stack of paperbacks and a clock, and the other held Beth's knife.

"My knife!" Beth said, reaching towards it, "You kept it!"

"Only thing of yours I had." He shifted the sleeping baby in his arms. "Judith don't use her crib no more. We can prob'ly borrow that."

"Sounds good. She'll be alright on the bed for now though."

Daryl laid Daisy gently on the bed. She stirred slightly at the movement, before scrunching up her fists by her face and going back to sleep. He watched her for a few moments and then said, his voice barely above a whisper, "She's a quiet kid. Hardly made a sound this whole time."

Beth got a strange, haunted look on her face, and Daryl wished he hadn't said anything. "She's had to be quiet. There were times…" Beth looked down at her hands, "There were times when she was younger, she wouldn't stop screamin', and there were walkers. I had to- to almost smother her. Guess she learnt. She doesn't talk yet, and I think she should be, by her age." Her voice was getting smaller and smaller, "I think it's my fault."

He reached out to her, wanting to comfort her but not sure what he was allowed to do. She stepped straight into his arms, and he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "You were alone with a baby. You done the best you could. Better a baby that don't talk than-" He didn't finish the sentence. It felt wrong, like if he said it out loud he would be tempting fate. "'Sides, maybe it's genes or some'in. I ain't exactly a chatterbox."

Beth said nothing in response, and Daryl began to frantically search his brain for something to distract her. "So," he said, "Daisy Dixon, huh?"

Beth let out a happy little huff into his chest, "I figured if she was gonna be without her daddy for a little while, she should at least have a name just like his." She pulled back to look at him, "D'you like it?"

"'S perfect," he said, then looked at the sleeping child on his bed, "She's perfect." Beth let out a little 'hmm' and Daryl pulled her tightly against him. She had fought her way back to him. Not only that, she had given him a child. It wasn't something he had ever thought he wanted, but now he had it he decided it was the most incredible gift anyone could ever have given him. He wished he could have seen her pregnant, stomach rounded with his baby. He wished he could have been there for the first weeks and months of his daughter's life. But he couldn't change the past. What he could change, was how he treated her from now on. And that should start by him telling her how he felt. "Beth, I never thought-"

But she cut him off by yawning loudly into his chest. She was swaying unsteadily on her feet, leaning most of her weight into him. She must have crashed after all of the adrenaline; she seemed exhausted. "You should take a nap too," he said.

She smiled gratefully up at him as he pushed her towards the bed, "Haven't slept much in the last few days."

"'S the comfiest bed I ever slept in. 'N you're safe here."

* * *

Daryl wasn't sure how long he spent watching them sleep. Beth Greene was lying in his bed next to their daughter, and that idea seemed so incredible that a part of him was convinced they would disappear if he looked away. If they were just a figment of his imagination, he wanted to keep the delusion going for as long as possible. But if they were real, there were things he needed to do before she woke up, so he reluctantly slipped out of the room.

He passed Rick in the hall. "They're sleepin'," Daryl mumbled as he switched out of the comfy shoes that Carol had insisted would be good for his ankle, and into his boots, "Goin' on a run." Rick smiled knowingly in response, and Daryl added, "Can we use Judith's old crib?"

"I'll put together some of the things she doesn't use anymore." Daryl nodded his thanks, tightening his laces. Rick leaned against the bannister, and Daryl couldn't find it in himself to care about his cocky smirk. "How're you feelin'?" Rick asked.

"Hell if I know," Daryl said, but he offered Rick a small, genuine smile. "Can't believe I got her back."

"And a baby too. She looks just like you, you know."

Daryl stood up, slinging his crossbow and pack over his shoulder, "Think she looks like both of us."

"You want some company?"

Daryl paused. He normally preferred to go on runs alone, but he did still have a dodgy ankle. He wasn't about to risk leaving Beth and Daisy alone again. Plus, Rick was a father, and Daryl knew nothing about babies except what he'd picked up by looking after Judith. He could probably offer some good advice. "Yeah, alrigh'."

* * *

In the end, Aaron and Glenn joined them as well. Their first stop was a baby store two towns over. They had raided it for things for Judith when they first got to Alexandria, but the shop was so big that you couldn't tell they had ever been there. Two years later and it seemed much the same; there were so few babies left in the world that baby stores were mostly left untouched.

The first thing Daryl looked for was a crib. Of course they could use Judith's, and Daisy wouldn't know or care if she was sleeping in a hand-me-down, but he wanted to give her the best he could. He picked out one in a dark wood, with hearts carved onto the ends. The sign next to it said that it converted into a 'toddler bed' whatever that was, and he snorted when he saw the price. A Dixon baby would never have slept in something so expensive before the end of the world. He located the boxed, flatpack version and loaded it into the truck they had brought. When he went back to find the sheets that had been modelled on the display unit, he realised the crib was part of a set. He grabbed the matching chest of drawers, toy box and high chair, and hauled them out to the truck with Aaron's help.

Daryl was stood in the middle of the clothing section when Rick emerged, carrying a basket full of things that Daryl didn't recognise. "What size are you gettin'?" he asked, gesturing to the piles of clothes in Daryl's arms.

"Uhh…" Daryl said, looking down at what he had picked up so far. He hadn't been paying attention to sizes, which was pretty dumb.

Rick laughed. "How old is she?"

Daryl wasn't sure exactly. He counted backwards. "She'll be, I guess, sixteen, seventeen months?"

"Ok, well you've got mostly newborn stuff. Start with twelve to eighteen, and then get a bunch of eighteen to twenty-four too. Once she starts eatin' properly, she'll be growin' out of things as soon as you put her into them."

* * *

Daryl had packed so many clothes for Daisy that she would probably be able to wear a new outfit every day, and so many toys and books that the truck was sitting noticeably lower on its suspension. Daryl, Aaron and Rick stood outside the store, waiting for Glenn to finish up. They had silently agreed to pretend to ignore the fact that Glenn was looking for things in a baby store.

A group of walkers had obviously heard the commotion, and were pushing weakly against a chainlink fence in an attempt to get to them. Almost all of the walkers left were so slow and decayed now that there was rarely any need to do more than simply avoid them. But then something caught the light on one of the bony fingers. Daryl's heart began to race, and he unsheathed his knife.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thank you so much for all of the follows, favourites and reviews. I've pretty much finished writing the last chapters now, and I hope to get it all uploaded before I leave for vacation next weekend.**

* * *

The sun was beginning to set by the time they got back, but Daryl set up a workshop in the front yard. He put together the crib, toy box and high chair, leaving the chest of drawers to assemble in the bedroom once he could do it without waking anybody up. Carol helped him to arrange the mattress and sheets, and he carried the crib carefully up the stairs.

He opened the door slowly, hoping to catch his girls, _his girls_ , still sleeping. He wasn't disappointed. Beth had wrapped herself around Daisy, cradling the baby to her chest. They looked so peaceful curled up together.

He took a step into the room and his bad ankle gave out, sending him and the crib crashing into the door frame. The noise woke Beth and Daisy instantly. Beth shot up into a crouch, knife at the ready, while Daisy tucked herself behind her mother, grasping at her waistband. Daryl was simultaneously proud of her incredible instincts and sick that she had needed to develop them at all. He should have been there to protect them. Once she realised where she was, Beth instantly sheathed her knife and relaxed back down onto the bed.

"Is that Judith's crib?" she said, pulling herself off the mattress and moving to inspect it. "It's beautiful."

Daryl hauled the cot into his arms again and deposited it next to the window. "Nah, we went on a run. Jus' built it." Beth beamed up at him. "Wait here, got some more stuff."

It took several trips to bring everything upstairs, and when he was finished it seemed that every surface was covered in baby stuff. Daisy was sat on the bed in the middle of a fort made of clothes, happily bashing two wooden blocks together. Beth slowly spun around to look at everything. "You got so much stuff," she said, her voice full of awe.

He shrugged, cheeks tingeing slightly pink. "She's my daughter."

The smile she gave him in response was small, but so sweet that for a moment he thought she actually might feel the same way about him as he did about her. She stepped towards him and put her palm to his cheek, running her thumb along the scruff on his jaw bone. He leaned into her touch and closed his eyes, breathing in deeply. He felt her shift, pulling a bit at the back of his neck as she reached up onto her toes, and she pressed her lips to his. It was the first time she had kissed him since their reunion, and she seemed almost hesitant, the movement of her lips soft and uncertain. He mentally kicked himself. He still hadn't told her how he felt.

He pulled away and took her hands, meeting her eyes intensely. On the way back from the baby store he had gone over and over what he wanted to say to her. But now that long speech and all those fancy words had disappeared from his brain. "Beth," he said, his voice annoyingly quiet and unsteady, "I love you."

He was waiting to see the reaction on her face, but she immediately threw her arms around his neck and burrowed her head into his shoulder. "I love you too," she mumbled into his shirt.

The past two years had been hell, but Daryl would have gone through two _hundred_ years of hell to hear Beth say she loved him back. Her admission seemed to release a dam in him. He loved her, and now he knew she loved him, and she always wanted him to talk more, and he wouldn't deny her anything she wanted ever again. Everything he had wanted to say to her since he left her in Atlanta spilled out of him, spoken into her hair or murmured into her ear. "I missed you so much. These two years… I just been existin'. You're all I ever thought about. 'N I never wanna be away from you again. That time we spent together was the best thing to ever happen to me, 'n I jus-"

He pulled back to look at her, and wiped away the tears rolling down her cheeks with his thumb. Staring into her beautiful blue eyes, her cheeks lightly flushed and a small smile parting her lips, he had no doubts. "Beth, I know what it's like to regret not doin' things. I don't ever wanna feel that way again." He stuffed his hand into his pocket and pulled out the rings he had taken from the walkers. Palm up, he held them out to her. "Marry me?"

She didn't say anything for what felt like forever, just wordlessly stared down at his hand. Daryl began to panic. Part of him was relieved to have finally said what he had been wanting to say for two long years. Another part of him, a part of him that was rapidly increasing in size, knew that this was exactly why he never told people how he felt; they tended to throw it back in his face. But then she slowly reached out, picked up the larger of the three rings, and began slipping it onto the ring finger of his left hand.

"Don't you want a ceremony or somethin'?" he asked. "We got a priest an' a church here."

Beth smiled up at him as she pushed the ring over his first knuckle. "I love you Daryl Dixon. I've spent two years tryin' to get back to you, and now I'm here I don't wanna go another second without bein' your wife." The ring hit the end of his finger and he looked down. He should have been panicking, he knew that. It was not a well thought out decision – cutting the rings from those walkers and proposing to Beth had both been done entirely on impulse. In any case, he had only planned on proposing today, he hadn't thought they would get married then and there. And now, with almost no consideration at all, he was someone's husband. But he didn't feel any fear. Maybe it was because he wasn't just someone's husband, he was _Beth's_ husband. And he had done enough thinking over the past two years to know that he had never wanted anything as much as he wanted her. Or so he had thought at least, until Daisy came into his life. Now he wanted both of them. They were all he needed to be happy, and he knew damn well that he could never be happy without them.

Daryl realised that part way through his internal monologue he had begun saying it out loud (apparently talking was an easy habit to fall into once you started). What he was saying was as good as any other wedding vows, he supposed, so he grabbed the two rings left in his hand and slipped them onto her finger.

In many ways marriage was meaningless at the end of the world. It had no legal standing, and there was nothing actually stopping either of them from walking away if they wished to. Somehow it meant more though. They both knew what was truly important, how fleeting life could be and how crucial it was to hold onto the good things. Daryl had no doubt that he would stay with Beth for the rest of his life and, as unbelievable as it was, knew that she must have felt the same to agree to be his wife.

Beth stretched up onto her toes again until her face was an inch away from his. "You may now kiss the bride," she whispered. So Daryl did. He wrapped her up in his arms, one hand cradling the back of her head and the other curled around her waist. He had probably said more words to Beth today than he had to everyone else in the last week combined. But it still didn't feel like enough. He was never good with words, and would definitely never be able to do justice to explaining the way he felt about her. He tried to pour all of his love into the kiss instead; maybe if he couldn't really tell her how much he loved her, he could make her feel it.

They broke apart, foreheads resting against each other for a moment before she burrowed her head into his shoulder just like Daisy had done. He could have stayed like that forever, wrapped up in Beth watching their daughter over her shoulder. Daisy gave him a gummy smile and then blew a spit bubble. It was kind of gross, but also kind of perfect. And for a man who had never considered anything in his life perfect before, today was turning out to be a pretty good day.

"I must smell somethin' awful," Beth said. Daryl wasn't going to lie to her: she smelled of walker guts and sweat. But that represented the things she had fought and all the miles she had run to get back to him. So he really didn't care. And besides, he figured that he had got way too used to living within the clean walls of Alexandria.

"'Ve smelled worse," he said, truthfully. "We got hot water though, if you want it."

Beth's mouth dropped open. "Are you sayin' that I've been here for _hours_ and no one bothered to tell me I could have had a hot shower?" She didn't wait for his response before scooping Daisy up from the pile of clothes and disappearing into the bathroom, turning on both the shower and bath at the same time.

* * *

Beth and Daisy were in the bathroom for over 45 minutes, and when she finally opened the door steam came billowing out to flood the bedroom. Strictly speaking they were supposed to keep their showers shorter than that to save energy and water. But Daryl would happily take cold showers for the rest of his life if long, hot showers was what she wanted.

"I feel almost human again," she said as she emerged, Daisy balanced on her hip. Her damp hair was braided down her back, and all the scrubbing she must have done had left her skin looking pink, like strawberries and cream. Rosita had dropped some clothes by until Beth had chance to put together a wardrobe of her own. Although they fit, they didn't look quite right on her. The shorts were too short for Beth, and even the top button on the shirt was still too low. But they beat the clothes she had arrived in, which were worn near transparent in places.

All thoughts of what Beth looked like evaporated when she shifted Daisy in her arms though. Beth had probably had over a hundred outfits to choose from for Daisy. But of all of them, she had picked a pale yellow onesie with 'Daddy's Little Girl' emblazoned in glitter across the front. Daryl almost hadn't taken that one, assuming Beth would think it was stupid, or that maybe he didn't have the right to dress her in clothes like that after being in her life for less than a day. He had shoved it to the very bottom of one of the piles, and yet somehow Beth had found it.

He wrapped his arms around both of them, breathing in the smell of clean and soap and - now that there was no walker blood covering it up - the distinct smell of _Beth_ that he would have recognised anywhere. "I'm so glad we found you again," she said. He squeezed them tighter.

"C'mon," he said eventually, reluctantly letting go of Beth and lifting Daisy out of her arms, "Dinner'll be just about ready. Reckon they're all too excited to see ya to let you stay up here much longer. 'N you both need to eat." He paused at the door. Beth was staring down at her left hand, rotating the diamond back and forth so it caught the light. He cleared his throat and she grinned up at him. "They're gonna wanna hear 'bout everythin'. You a'ight with that?"

Beth thought about it for a minute and then nodded. "They're family," she said simply.

"Good," Daryl said, "I wanna hear about it too."

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